Robert (Bobby) McAlpine Maxwell was born at Tuscaloosa, Alabama, the son of Luther Henderson Maxwell and Virginia McAlpine.
MIA 24 November 1943. He served on the USS Liscombe Bay. He was officially declared dead on 25 November 1944.
Norris High School Alumni. Commemorated on a plaque at the Norris Town Center, Norris, TN
Memorialized at the Honolulu Memorial, Honolulu, HI
At 5:10 a.m. on November 24, 1943, Liscome Bay was part of a task group steaming 20 miles southwest of Butaritari Island at 15 knots when a lookout shouted that a torpedo was in the water heading towards the ship. Within moments the deadly underwater ordnance, one of a spread of torpedoes fired from the Japanese submarine I-175, slammed into the escort carrier’s starboard side. It hit at the worst possible location, near the bomb magazine. The resulting massive explosions triggered when the bombs ignited killed many crewmen instantly, including some Composite Squadron (VC) 39 pilots sitting in the cockpits of their aircraft on deck awaiting the first launch of the day. Those more fortunate souls remembered the tremendous shock of the blow that threw them to the deck and into bulkheads. In many spaces steam lines ruptured and electricity went out. In some cases badly burned and in others suffering from broken bones and shrapnel wounds, the survivors made their way through shattered hatches, twisted bulkheads, and any hole they could find in an effort to reach topside so that they could abandon ship. Liscome Baysank in just 23 minutes. All told, 644 men lost their lives that morning.
- Rank: Ensign
- Date of birth: 5 April 1921
- Date of death: 24 November 1943
- County: Anderson
- Hometown: Norris
- Service Branch: Navy
- Division/Assignment: Liscome Bay (CVE-56)
- Theater: Pacific
- Conflict: World War II
- Awards: Purple Heart
- Burial/Memorial Location: Honolulu Memorial, Honolulu, Hawaii
- Location In Memorial: Pillar VI, Top Panel
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